Time Traveler

If an afternoon at a festival isn't enough excitement, we decided to do a little time travelling on Friday night.

Earlier that day I had seen a commercial for a local business. As we're eating dinner, I mentioned it to Jim. Okay, Jim was eating dinner, and I was feeding Sera. He thought it was an excellent idea, and ran downstairs to check out their website. Our thought was for next weekend and that we'd invite Doug & Laura and their kids to join us. After checking out their website, Jim decided we needed to do a test run.

What is this local business, you ask? It's an old-fashioned drive-in movie theater. Yep, it really exists.

It's located in a town about 30 minutes south of us. They have three screens. Screen 1 was showing Surfs Up and Shrek the Third, screen 2 had the latest Pirates of the Carribbean and Wild Hogz, and screen 3 had Knocked Up and 28 Weeks Later. They have a playground, a miniature golf course, and a restaurant that serves what you'd expect. You have your choice of various styles of hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, popcorn, candy, coffee drinks, slushies, funnel cakes, ice cream, etc... Their prices are amazingly reasonable. Admission is $7.00 for adults, $5.00 for children, and free for under three. This is for a double feature. Jim bought a large tub of popcorn and 2 soft drinks that hold more than any one should drink in a week for $8.00.

When we drove in, it was like going back in time. Cars were parked all over the grassy field, children ran around their parents' car, and teenagers flirted on blankets. Car windows and hatches were open so that the radio could be heard. The tinny speakers have been replaced by tuning in to the assigned FM channel. People sat in their folding chairs or on blankets and visited until the sun finally went down and the feature started.

The bad news is that we live in a state where people can't read a map. Even though we are geographically in the center of the country, our politicians have decided the sun rises and sets here at the same time as it does in Boston. It was 9:45 pm before the first feature started. I don't see any double features in our future.

I'm glad we did a test run. The night wasn't a huge success, but we learned what we need to do to make this work. First, bring chairs and a blanket so we don't have to sit in the car the whole time. Second, do NOT remove the toddler from the carseat. It was way past her bedtime and she would have fallen asleep shortly. Once she was loose though...fuggheddaboutit. There was just way too much to see to sleep. When she finally fell asleep, I think she truly passed out. It was ugly and reminded me of that sack full of puppies.

She was so out that she didn't wake up when the movie ended and Jim put her back in the car seat. Nor did she wake up when we got home, and he took her upstairs, changed her diaper and put her in her crib. She didn't make a peep until 10:00 am Saturday morning.

We'll make some adjustments and try again soon. It's a great way to see current movies and enjoy time under the stars.